oil everywhere!!!!

I just bought a 99 V6 Tacoma. It was wrecked in the front but nothing major. I pulled the main bends out to get the fan to spin freely. Even after that the power steering wasn’t really working though. It was late and dark so I didn’t even bother with it. I Was driving it home and noticed that it was losing power then it died. pulled over to the side of the freeway and popped the hood. There was oil all over the driver side of the motor. It appeared that it was leaking out of the spark plug wires because 4 out of the 6 were totally soaked. I ended up towing it home. When I got home I added some oil and tried to start it. While cranking it turned over so freely as if there was no compression at all. It finally fired up but barely ran long enough to back up and pull it into my garage. The only thing that I can think of was that the crank case breather was pinched and built enough pressure to blow the valve cover gasket and plug rings but that does explain why it sounded like it didn’t have compression

Well it’s not the t-belt because it still runs, just really rough. I pulled one of the plugs that appeared to be leaking and it was soaked to the point of dripping. So this really says that its either head gasket, valve covers or valve seals. The trucks ran perfect prior to the wreck. What is the likelihood of all this happening at once? Both valve covers and only around the plug holes? Again it was wrecked in the front and the power steering line is cut due to rubbing on the pulley but none of this makes sense. Is there anything up front that could have gotten pinched which cause too much pressure in the crankcase??? Come on, SOMEONE out there has to know!!!

there is a dye that parts stores sell that you add to the engine oil, and use a UV light to see it... Maybe try putting that in with the oil, top the oil off, then try to get the engine to run long enough to see where its coming from. I would say there would be a good chance something is cracked.

As for the blocked crank case breather... I don't think there could be enough pressure to push all the oil out. Maybe if the engine had boost on it, and you were running the guts out of it... But just Naturally aspirated, I don't see it making enough to push out much oil at all.

As far as leaking out the valve cover... The oil in the valve cover is basically just oil splashing around, there isn't pressure under there, so valve cover seals leaking would cause some dripping and some smell, but should NOT drain the engine of the oil, unless there was just no seal under the valve covers at all.

You need to look deep... As someone already stated... Your best bet may be to just start with a fresh engine from the junk yard. Here is a thought... see how serious it is... Go to Advance/Autozone and rent yourself a compression tester and maybe even a cylinder leak down tester and see what your compression is like...

The compression tester... just pull the spark plugs, screw in the tube for the tester, then crank the engine over for like 5 seconds (or whatever it says in the instructions) then check the gauge and see what it says. If they all test good, then do the leak down test. Same deal.. threads into the spark plugs, and hooks up to an air compressor. You pump a certain amount of air into the cylinder, then watch to see how much air pressure it loses over a set time period (like 5 minutes)